Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in Devon.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked National Health Service dental practices in England to deliver at least 95% of contracted units of dental activity between April and June 2022 to improve access for patients safely. Patients can contact NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre for assistance in finding a local dental practice or NHS 111 if seeking urgent dental care.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with Health Education England and Bristol and Peninsula Dental schools as part of the South West Dental Reform programme to address the challenges facing NHS dentistry in the region. We are also currently developing further proposals for dental system reform with the aim of improving access for patients.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What plans he has for the future role of community hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar
Community hospitals are a hugely valuable and valued part of our health and care system. As we have seen during the pandemic, they have played a vital role in providing intermediate care for patients not yet well enough to return home and play a much broader role year-in year-out to the communities they serve. While it is for local communities to make decisions on specific local services, we are clear that our community hospitals should continue to play a central role in healthcare provision for many years to come.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many reports of mis-stunning before slaughter he has received for each category of animal in each year since 2008.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) can provide recorded data from 2010 onwards detailing the number of instances of inaccurate/ineffective stunning which have occurred in the main categories of animals, in FSA approved slaughter premises in England and Wales. Each instance relates to an event that has been categorised as a serious or critical non-compliance on the welfare reporting systems used at that time. These figures do not reflect the number of animals involved.
Number of inaccurate/ineffective stuns recorded as serious/critical in England and Wales 2010-19
Year | Period | Poultry | Cattle | Pigs | Sheep and Goats | Total |
2010 | April 2010 to March 2011 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 39 |
2011 | April 2011 to March 2012 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 23 |
2012 | April 2012 to March 2013 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 25 |
2013 | April 2013 to March 2014 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 24 |
2014 | April 2014 to March 2015 | 11 | 21 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
2015 | April 2015 to March 2016 | 4 | 81 | 0 | 3 | 88 |
2016 | April 2016 to March 2017 | 2 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 30 |
2017 | April 2017 to March 2018 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 10 | 30 |
2018 | April 2018 to March 2019 | 2 | 34 | 4 | 6 | 46 |
2019 | April 2019 to December 2019 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 6 | 21 |
Grand Total | 61 | 232 | 21 | 50 | 364 | |
The figures in the table above for poultry only reflect the data associated with electrical stunning methods as the predominant method used in larger poultry premises is controlled atmosphere stunning (gas) method which is designed to kill rather than stun.
Asked by: Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many reports of mis-cutting he received for each category of animal in each year since 2008.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) can provide the recorded data from 2010 onwards detailing the number of instances of mis-cutting which have occurred in the main categories of animals, in FSA approved slaughter premises in England and Wales. Each instance relates to an event that has been categorised as a serious or critical non-compliance on the welfare reporting systems used at that time. These figures do not reflect the number of animals involved.
Year | Period | Poultry | Cattle | Pigs | Sheep and Goats | Total |
2010 | April 2010 to March 2011 | 181 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 181 |
2011 | April 2011 to March 2012 | 154 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 154 |
2012 | April 2012 to March 2013 | 180 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 180 |
2013 | April 2013 to March 2014 | 88 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 88 |
2014 | April 2014 to March 2015 | 93 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 93 |
2015 | April 2015 to March 2016 | 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 96 |
2016 | April 2016 to March 2017 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 |
2017 | April 2017 to March 2018 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 43 |
2018 | April 2018 to March 2019 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 |
2019 | April 2019 to December 2019 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 28 |
| Grand Total | 933 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 936 |
As is evident in the data contained in the table the issue is almost exclusively related to poultry processing with an improving trend in recent years. This is due to improvements in business operator practices, technology and enforcement action being taken against operators who do not comply with the legal requirements.